The case against religion is the responsibility of God for the sufferings of mankind, which makes it impossible to believe the good things said about Him in the Bible, and consequently to believe anything it says about Him.

every human activity, whether it be love, philosophy, art, or revolution, is carried on with a special intensity in Paris.

whatever a work of art may be, the artist certainly cannot dare to be simple. He must have a nature as complicated and as violent, as totally unsuggestive of the word innocence, as a modern war.

Neurotics, who cause less distress to themselves and their neighbours than those in the other category, are at war with their own natures. Their right hands are in conflict with their left. Psychotics, and it is those who commit purposeless crimes and prefer death to life, are at war with their environment. Right and left hands strike against the womb that carries them.

History sometimes acts as madly as heredity, and her most unpredictable performances are often her most glorious.

It seemed a good idea at the time.

But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example.